Specific Policy Interventions Research Articles

Enabling a just transition: A composite indicator for assessing home-heating energy-poverty risk and the impact of environmental policy measures

Home-heating energy-poverty risk presents both challenge and opportunity for policymakers, businesses and communities. Effective measurement and management of this risk requires an evidence base that accounts for characteristics of the householder, building, and heating system. A composite index utilising 10 indicators refined to Small Area level is created to deliver spatially refined analysis of home-heating energy-poverty risk. The index is used to assess home-heating energy-poverty risk across 18,641 Small Area clusters in Ireland. This risk index is a scalable and internationally transferrable methodology that can be extended to cover other energy uses. Importantly the index is also dynamic and offers the capacity to analyse changes in energy-poverty risk associated with specific policy intervention proposals, including major contemporary environmental policy transitions such as residential fabric retrofit, residential heating system changes, energy price changes and carbon taxation. The application of the index to the Irish case affords refined insight into the impact and incidence of various market, technology and policy driven interventions such as fuel price changes, retrofit strategies and carbon tax increases. Risk and impacts vary geographically, and this index is designed to inform targeted policy interventions to mitigate home heating energy-poverty risk and thereby support ambitions for a ‘just transition’.

Socio-economic Determinants of Temporary Labour Migration in Western Jharkhand, India

This article examines the socio-economic determinant of temporary labour migration in Jharkhand. The study uses primary data collected from 12 villages in the western region of Jharkhand. We have used logistic regression model to find out the socio-economic determinant of migration by setting, individual ( n = 4,241) and households ( n = 781). The regression results show that temporary migration is basically from poor households, and migrants are basically male, young and form Scheduled Caste community. Here, landholding and Monthly Per capita Consumption Expenditure (MPCE) have been taken as the indicator of poverty. We find that there is significant and negative relationship between land owned and migration, that is, the more the land owned, the less the household is likely to migrate. Further, we find that higher the MPCE, lesser the induvial is likely to migrate. Poverty, lack of sufficient means of subsistence, unequal distribution of landholding to meet household expenditure, availability of employment opportunities and loan are the main causes of temporary migration. Since temporary labour migration is very large, it needs to be given high priority with specific policy interventions.

Klimaatbeleid in de krant

Abstract The legitimacy of climate policy is a necessary condition for the broad acceptance of government interventions and civic participation. News media are an important source of information for public perceptions and beliefs concerning climate change and climate policy, which people will use to grant or deny legitimacy. In this article we apply the theoretical perspective of media framing to analyse Dutch newspaper coverage of climate change and climate policy during April and May 2019, by means of systematic manual content analysis. We use these empirical findings to further reflect on their potential significance for policy legitimacy as experienced by their readership. Overall, the newspapers pay little attention to climate change as a contested phenomenon and to humanity’s contribution to its cause and solution. In the fight to reduce CO2-emission, the Dutch government is portrayed as the principal agent. The responsibility of individual citizens is less often highlighted. Hence, newspaper coverage does not seem to challenge the fight against climate change as a legitimate policy goal. It does, however, pay ample attention to specific policy interventions to reduce CO2-emission and the controversies that surround them. In line with, or as a reflection of these findings, differences within public opinion are to be expected concerning the legitimacy of policy interventions, both with regard to their desirability on paper (input) and their actual (side) effects (output).

Immigration policy mismatches and counterproductive outcomes: unauthorized migration to the U.S. in two eras

The world appears to be moving into a new era of international migration during which gaps between policies needed to manage migratory flows and those enacted in practice will widen. Whereas immigrants in the late 20th century were motivated by a desire to improve their wellbeing by accessing opportunities in richer countries, in the early 21st century they are increasingly motivated by a desire to escape threats at places of origin, yielding very different patterns of migration and selectivity. Using the United States as an example, this paper reviews how mismatches between the underlying realities of international migration and the policies adopted to manage them, in both eras have produced and continue to produce dysfunctional outcomes. Although deleterious policy outcomes might be avoided in the future by combining a well-grounded conceptual understanding of the forces producing immigration with a clear statement of the goals to be achieved through specific policy interventions, the avoidance of further dysfunctional outcomes is unlikely to be achieved in an age of rising populism, disinformation, and xenophobia.

Five Decades of Productivity and Efficiency Changes in World Agriculture (1969–2013)

The present study applied the Färe–Primont index approach to estimate the total factor productivity (TFP) growth of world agriculture, covering the period 1969–2013. Overall, the world agricultural TFP grew at a rate of 0.44% p.a. This growth was mainly contributed to by technological progress and mix efficiency changes, while the contributions of technical efficiency and scale efficiency changes were negligible. TFP growth varied across regions, with South Asia at the top of the list (1.05% p.a.), and East Asia and the Pacific (0.18% p.a.) at the bottom. TFP components exerted differential influences amongst regions. For instance, mix efficiency played a dominant role in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, whereas it was technical efficiency change in Latin America and the Caribbean region. The paper argues for region specific policy interventions emphasizing technical progress through investment in R&D and price and non-price interventions to improve economies of scope and scale of operation in the agricultural sector.

Questioning the link between tenure security and sustainable land management in cocoa landscapes in Ghana

Abstract Sustainable land management (SLM) is increasingly recognized as viable pathway to accelerate poverty reduction and achieving sustainable development, particularly in the global South. Despite efforts to promote SLM practices, their adoption has been extremely limited with debates revolving around the role of land tenure in farmer’s decision-making. Drawing on a tripartite conception of tenure security, we distinguish between three categories of tenure security: 1) legal security; 2) contextual/defacto security, and 3) perceived tenure security to examine factors affecting smallholders’ investment in SLM in Ghana. The paper draws on 380 surveys covering 796 plots and a series of key informant interview to investigate how land tenure shapes farmers’ investment decisions regarding SLM adoption at the plot level. The findings of the study demonstrate that different types of SLM investments (including soil improvements, on-farm tree planting and conservation of naturally-occurring tree species) were undertaken by farmers, even those who perceived their tenure rights as insecure. However, the results demonstrate that different components of tenure security influence adoption of SLM practices in ways which are not consistent across the different components of tenure security or specific SLM practices. Furthermore, the relationship between tenure security and SLM investments is also mediated by other important non-tenurial factors (including access to credit, modernised agricultural inputs and targeted extension service support). The findings suggest that land tenure policies will deliver a range of outcomes (both positive and negative) pertaining to land conservation investments. This means thinking more deeply about priorities with respect to SLM interventions, particularly in emerging contexts like Ghana and SSA generally. Overall, these findings are important for redesigning context- specific and appropriate land-use policy interventions that address barriers to SLM adoption.

Measuring the legitimacy of energy transition policy in the Netherlands

In line with the Paris Agreement, the Dutch Government aims to achieve 49% CO2 emission reduction by 2030. The required energy transition will have a large impact on Dutch society. So, it is important that citizens and companies support and agree on the required policies. This paper explores the legitimacy of these policies and how to measure the degree of such legitimacy.A survey among Dutch citizens and company representatives shows support for the emission reduction policy goals (input-legitimacy). We also explored support for two specific policy interventions (output legitimacy): 1) an ‘in-home display’, collectively paid for by all energy consumers, and 2) an in-home display that is paid for by the energy companies. Both interventions are supported by around 50% of the citizens and companies. We found strong correlations between underlying aspects of legitimacy (related to good governance criteria) and the overall support for the interventions. We also found that public support for a policy goal does not automatically result in support for the associated intervention. This emphasizes the importance of ex-ante testing of specific interventions to determine the level of public support, so that policy can become more effective and efficient.

Assessing the Policy Implementation of the Bangladeshi Domestic Violence Act: Any Lessons for Protecting South African Women in their Homes?

ABSTRACT Violence against women in the home is a serious global social, health and human rights problem which transcends every level of society. Many countries have enacted and implemented specific legal policy interventions, often referred to as the “Domestic Violence Act”, in order protect women from violence at home. Although the Domestic Violence (Prevention and Protection) Act 2010 was an important landmark in policy-making in Bangladesh, legal recourse by survivors of violence in the home using this Act appears to be exceedingly low in some districts. Using a qualitative case-study approach, this article, part of a broader investigation on violence in the home, critically assesses the implementation of the Act in the Bangladeshi administrative district of Mymensingh. Since enactment of the law until the study period in 2014, only two cases were lodged under this Act in this district. In-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with the concerned implementers and the survivors of domestic violence. Furthermore, relevant documentary evidence was also consulted. This assessment reveals that policy implementation of the Act suffered from various drawbacks, in particular lack of coordination, non-compliance, implementation delays, lack of commitment and the capabilities of the implementers. We then reflect on lessons from this assessment for South Africa, pointing out some possibilities for overcoming the problems associated with implementation of laws against violence against women in the home.

Population ageing, labour productivity and economic welfare in the European Union

This paper examines the impact of the ageing dimensions and other economic and social variables on labour productivity and poverty risk within the European Union (EU). Taking into account the sizable dissimilarities among the EU Member States, our research is configured on four specific panels, according to the UNECE/European Commission mapping of EU countries, based on the Active Ageing Index data and methodology for 2018. We have compiled a complex dataset with official data to measure the ageing features, labour market dimensions and poverty, along with other economic and social representative variables, during 1995-2017. The methodological endeavour is critical and analytical, grounded on an extensive quantitative research. Two multifactorial macro-econometric models are applied in order to evaluate the direct implications of the ageing dimensions and other utter credentials on labour productivity, respectively on poverty levels. Structural equation modelling further entails an integrative examination of the total, indirect and bidirectional connections between the ageing phenomenon, several socio-economic indicators and the labour market performance, with a final impact on poverty. Results show different yet extremely significant labour market and poverty impacts for the ageing representative groups of EU countries, which require specific policy interventions and tailored strategies.

Money speaks: Reductions in severe food insecurity follow the Canada Child Benefit

Food insecurity is a pervasive public health problem in high income countries, disproportionately affecting households with children. Though it has been strongly linked with socioeconomic status and investments in social protection programs, less is known about its sensitivity to specific policy interventions, particularly among families. We implemented a difference-in-difference (DID) design to assess whether Canadian households with children experienced reductions in food insecurity compared to those without following the roll-out of a new country-wide income transfer program: the Canada Child Benefit (CCB). Data were derived from the 2015–2018 cycles of Canadian Community Health Survey. We used multinomial logistic regressions to test the association between CCB and food insecurity among three samples: households reporting any income (N = 41,455), the median income or less (N = 18,191) and the Low Income Measure (LIM) or less (N = 7579). The prevalence and severity of food insecurity increased with economic vulnerability, and were both consistently higher among households with children. However, they also experienced significantly greater drops in the likelihood of experiencing severe food insecurity following CCB; most dramatically among those reporting the LIM or less (DID: −4.7%, 95% CI: −8.6, −0.7). These results suggest that CCB disproportionately benefited families most susceptible to food insecurity. Furthermore, our findings also indicate that food insecurity may be impacted by even modest changes to economic circumstance, speaking to the potential of income transfers to help people meet their basic needs.

Shortfalls in Conservation Evidence: Moving from Ecological Effects of Interventions to Policy Evaluation

Conservation of biodiversity and ecosystem services in natural environments requires careful management choices. However, common methods of evaluating the impact of conservation interventions can have contextual shortcomings. Here, we make a call for counterfactual thinking—asking the question "what would have happened in the absence of an intervention?"—with the support of rigorous evaluation approaches and more thoughtful consideration of human dimensions and behavior. We review and contrast different evaluation approaches and highlight the advantages of counterfactual approaches over alternative methods. We also illustrate how even robust estimates of ecological impact can fail to estimate the impact of specific policy interventions. The latter depend importantly on human preferences and responses to regulations and incentives that cannot be captured by studies of ecological impact. We propose specific and practical steps that all evaluations can implement now to immediately improve their credibility and accountability.

Expectations of telemedicine health service adoption in rural Bangladesh

This study analyzes the antecedent factors that influence patients' expectations of telemedicine adoption in centres hosted by rural public hospitals in Bangladesh. It examines five antecedents of patients' expectations of telemedicine adoption—self-efficacy, telemedicine experience, knowledge, enjoyment, and prior satisfaction. A conceptual research model was formulated, encompassing a set of hypotheses that were developed and tested by employing partial least squares structural equation modelling. Using a structured survey questionnaire, a cross-sectional survey was conducted among 500 telemedicine users in different rural areas in Bangladesh. Except knowledge, four antecedents significantly contribute to patients' expectations of telemedicine health service adoption explaining 66% of the variance (R2) in expectations. These findings provide support for explaining antecedents to the formation of patients’ expectations of telemedicine adoption and the institutionalisation of favourable policy guidelines as an early guidance for the development of successful healthcare industries in Bangladesh and other similar settings. Specific policy interventions and recommendations are provided, including current research limitations leading to opportunities for future research.

‘Back to the village’: the model of urban outmigration in post-communist Romania

ABSTRACT The paper is based on the assumption that the ‘back-to-the-village’ movement is a spatial outcome of recent choices that people make in response to emerging social, political and economic changes of post-socialist cities. It examines the combined effect of counter and suburbanization processes on the redistribution patterns of population where the countryside ‘empowered’ by the land reform and the structural changes of urban economies explain the reversal of internal migration of population in search of social security and better livelihoods. Urban outmigration reflects the articulations between labour market, business dynamics, social exclusion, economic profile and urban function across the layers of the urban system. The findings pinpoint the main drivers of urban outmigration within the context of deindustrialization, de-urbanization and ‘ruralization’ of urban economies. While the urban outmigration shows that urban-rural dichotomy is deeply ‘blurred’ by the scale and nature of urban socio-economic transformations, interurban inequalities are growing and require specific policy interventions.

Human appropriation of net primary production in Bangladesh, 1700–2100

In the global debate on environmental integrity, land system is one of the nine planetary boundaries. Bangladesh being one of the top densely populated but rapidly developing countries, lacking in statistical inventories, has a gloomy history of agricultural and infrastructural intensification at the expense of forest cover loss. However, to what extent its land has lost productivity due to land use changes is yet to be calculated for Bangladesh which this study explores for 400 years (1700–2100) through the lens of human appropriation of net primary productivity (HANPP). It shows an increase in both spatial HANPP from 1700 (275.94 gC/m2) to 1992 (594.38 gC/m2) and non-spatial HANPP from 1961 (1169.37 gC/m2) to 2016 (1318.14 gC/m2) based on which future projections have been made. Population is a reliable predictor of HANPP which indicated the expected HANPP of 1458.20 gC/m2 by 2100. Bangladesh shows much higher HANPP compared to its peers and hence the approaches and methodologies of this research may help countries with poor statistical database to calculate HANPP. This study rendered where and to what degree the net primary productivity was appropriated in Bangladesh, suggesting region specific policy and programme interventions necessary to reduce HANPP. The GDP-HANPP regression model indicates a loss of approximately 8.62 million 2018 US$ GDP for reduction of HANPP by 1 kt C/year which can be used as a guiding value in seeking fund from carbon financing mechanisms to pursue the gross HANPP reduction threshold of 926.675 gC/m2/year corresponding to the achievement of 25% forest cover in Bangladesh. The HANPP case of Bangladesh provides clue to countries witnessing rapid population and economic growth and associated with large-scale land use changes to expand agriculture and infrastructure, indicating that inaction on their part in harmonizing development planning based on HANPP indicators may jeopardize the attainment of SDGs.

Government policy interventions to reduce human antimicrobial use: A systematic review and evidence map.

BackgroundGrowing political attention to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) offers a rare opportunity for achieving meaningful action. Many governments have developed national AMR action plans, but most have not yet implemented policy interventions to reduce antimicrobial overuse. A systematic evidence map can support governments in making evidence-informed decisions about implementing programs to reduce AMR, by identifying, describing, and assessing the full range of evaluated government policy options to reduce antimicrobial use in humans.Methods and findingsSeven databases were searched from inception to January 28, 2019, (MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PAIS Index, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science, and PubMed). We identified studies that (1) clearly described a government policy intervention aimed at reducing human antimicrobial use, and (2) applied a quantitative design to measure the impact. We found 69 unique evaluations of government policy interventions carried out across 4 of the 6 WHO regions. These evaluations included randomized controlled trials (n = 4), non-randomized controlled trials (n = 3), controlled before-and-after designs (n = 7), interrupted time series designs (n = 25), uncontrolled before-and-after designs (n = 18), descriptive designs (n = 10), and cohort designs (n = 2). From these we identified 17 unique policy options for governments to reduce the human use of antimicrobials. Many studies evaluated public awareness campaigns (n = 17) and antimicrobial guidelines (n = 13); however, others offered different policy options such as professional regulation, restricted reimbursement, pay for performance, and prescription requirements. Identifying these policies can inform the development of future policies and evaluations in different contexts and health systems. Limitations of our study include the possible omission of unpublished initiatives, and that policies not evaluated with respect to antimicrobial use have not been captured in this review.ConclusionsTo our knowledge this is the first study to provide policy makers with synthesized evidence on specific government policy interventions addressing AMR. In the future, governments should ensure that AMR policy interventions are evaluated using rigorous study designs and that study results are published.Protocol registrationPROSPERO CRD42017067514.

A baseline of atmospheric greenhouse gases for prospective UK shale gas sites

We report a 24-month statistical baseline climatology for continuously-measured atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) mixing ratios linked to surface meteorology as part of a wider environmental baselining project tasked with understanding pre-existing local environmental conditions prior to shale gas exploration in the United Kingdom.The baseline was designed to statistically characterise high-precision measurements of atmospheric composition gathered over two full years (between February 1st 2016 and January 31st 2018) at fixed ground-based measurement stations on, or near to, two UK sites being developed for shale gas exploration involving hydraulic fracturing. The sites, near Blackpool (Lancashire) and Kirby Misperton (North Yorkshire), were the first sites approved in the UK for shale gas exploration since a moratorium was lifted in England. The sites are operated by Cuadrilla Resources Ltd. and Third Energy Ltd., respectively.A statistical climatology of greenhouse gas mixing ratios linked to prevailing local surface meteorology is presented. This study diagnoses and interprets diurnal, day-of-week, and seasonal trends in measured mixing ratios and the contributory role of local, regional and long-range emission sources.The baseline provides a set of contextual statistical quantities against which the incremental impacts of new activities (in this case, future shale gas exploration) can be quantitatively assessed. The dataset may also serve to inform the design of future case studies, as well as direct baseline monitoring design at other potential shale gas and industrial sites. In addition, it provides a quantitative reference for future analyses of the impact, and efficacy, of specific policy interventions or mitigating practices. For example, statistically significant excursions in measured concentrations from this baseline (e.g. >99th percentile) observed during phases of operational extraction may be used to trigger further examination in order to diagnose the source(s) of emission and links to on-site activities at the time, which may be of importance to regulators, site operators and public health stakeholders. A guideline algorithm for identifying these statistically significant excursions, or “baseline deviation events”, from the expected baseline conditions is presented and tested. Gaussian plume modelling is used to further these analyses, by simulating approximate upper-limits of CH4 fluxes which could be expected to give observable enhancements at the monitoring stations under defined meteorological conditions.

The anatomy of fragile states in Sub‐Saharan Africa: Understanding the interrelationship between fragility and indicators of wellbeing

AbstractAccording to most classifications, Sub‐Saharan Africa is the region of the world with the highest presence of fragile states. In this paper we examine the relationship between fragility and poverty, suggesting that countries may become trapped in a vicious circle of fragility and low levels of wellbeing. We consider fragility as a continuum and begin by reviewing available measures. These show the high presence of fragility in Sub‐Saharan Africa and allow the more fragile countries to be identified. There is seen to be a strong association between fragility, poor growth performance, and lower wellbeing in Sub‐Saharan Africa. Building on the strong evidence for the two‐way relationship between economic growth and poverty, we present an analysis of how the vicious circle linking poorer welfare outcomes and fragility may be able to be broken. We argue that building successful institutions is key here, and this can be enabled by specific policy interventions that are both poverty reducing and productive.

Using green infrastructure to improve urban air quality (GI4AQ)

As evidence for the devastating impacts of air pollution on human health continues to increase, improving urban air quality has become one of the most pressing tasks facing policy makers world-wide. Increasingly, and very often on the basis of conflicting and/or weak evidence, the introduction of green infrastructure (GI) is seen as a win–win solution to urban air pollution, reducing ground-level concentrations without imposing restrictions on traffic and other polluting activities. The impact of GI on air quality is highly context dependent, with models suggesting that GI can improve urban air quality in some situations, but be ineffective or even detrimental in others. Here we set out a novel conceptual framework explaining how and where GI can improve air quality, and offer six specific policy interventions, underpinned by research, that will always allow GI to improve air quality. We call GI with unambiguous benefits for air quality GI4AQ. However, GI4AQ will always be a third-order option for mitigating air pollution, after reducing emissions and extending the distance between sources and receptors.

A Context-Responsiveness Framework for the Relationship Between Government and Social Entrepreneurship: Exploring the Cases of United States, Switzerland, and Lithuania

In this article, we consider the status of social entrepreneurship and social enterprise in relation to government and public administration practice. For this purpose, we present and discuss a framework composed of three alignments. In the first alignment, social entrepreneurial practices and supportive policies, to the extent they exist, are fully bracketed within sociohistorical traditions of the place and cultural traditions of the people and groups in society. In the second alignment, governments have established or are in the process of establishing systems reforms to promote social entrepreneurial behavior that link specific policy interventions, or sociocultural interventions, with a normatively desired environment. This includes making system reforms that strive to break away from the historical and cultural biases that may have restrained social enterprises and in which legal, social, political, and economic interventions are fully aligned with one another. In the third alignment, the reforms designed and implemented are focused on the specific objectives that can enable and facilitate social entrepreneurial behavior like access to human and financial capital, access to markets for products and/or services developed, access to government decision makers who are responsible for establishing environments, and/or policies conducive to social entrepreneurial behavior and ventures. We selected three countries, United States, Switzerland, and Lithuania, as illustrations for our framework, given their highly divergent sociohistorical contexts, current governance structures, and comfort with various ideals and excesses of capitalist and social-democratic systems. This exploration gives the reader a foundational understanding of the concept and divergent approaches to implementation of a social-entrepreneurial cultural and policy framework.

Assessment of the core competencies of veterinarians: implications for policy decisions in India.

he objectives of this study were two-fold - to assess the technical competencies of veterinarians and their application, and to investigate veterinarians' activities and appropriate ways for them to acquire and enhance competencies. The studywas undertaken in three South Indian states: Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Telangana. The survey data, collected in 2015-2016 from nine districts in the three states, came from in-depth questionnaires completed by 270 veterinary assistant surgeons (VASs). The key survey questions were related to: specific technical competencies and their application, appropriate ways to acquirethem, additional competencies needed and recommended activities to enhancethem. Each respondent's rating was obtained on a) how important are thesecompetencies and b) what is their current level of knowledge and/or skills toperform them? The findings revealed that the current level of knowledge and/orskills was inadequate in production, para-clinical and clinical areas in the day-todaywork of VASs. The findings suggested that pre-service, in-service and basic induction training, and attending national and international seminars, workshopsand Webinars, are appropriate ways to acquire competencies. Additional skillsperceived as necessary by respondents include: time and stress managementskills, motivational techniques, digital communication technologies, and writing and presentation skills. Specific policy interventions suggested and discussed include: adequate hands-on pre-service instruction in veterinary colleges and assessment of competencies before certification, introducing a veterinary licensing examination, reinforcing competencies through induction training,in-service or continuing veterinary education programmes, and improving theinstitutional mechanisms to assess competencies at regular intervals.